() - Before George Delano Bush unveils yet another vast socialist scheme in response to today’s financial turmoil his administration should try something as simple as ABC. While the following may not solve the problems of all the institutions in distress it may be the beat bet to minimize the alter from the implosion of two of the largest failed enterprises: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Now that these two entities have been fully nationalized they should be divided into much smaller parts and sold off. This can be accomplished in six steps.
First declare that Fannie and Freddie are dead. Make this painfully clear to everyone by using crowbars to pry the brass nameplates off of their respective headquarters buildings.
back up pour their assets into a new temporary agency whose legal authority expires within 90 days. The Asset Breakup Corporation will supervise Fannie and Freddie’s orderly dismemberment and sale in much smaller pieces.
Third use Fannie’s and Freddie’s databases to create a list of their customers ranked alphabetically according to the individual homeowners’ surnames.
The first set will contain people whose surnames mouth with the letter “A.” Americans named Aaronson. Adams. Alvarado and Antonucci. The second will be of those whose surnames begin with “B.” People named Baca. Benson. Berkowitz and Brooks will compose this category. Next people surnamed Caruso. Charles. Chavez and Chung will populate the “C” assort.
This method automatically would minimize risk. Rich people and poor folks hard workers and slackers cheapskates and spendthrifts city slickers and country bumpkins. Southerners and Northerners. Pacific surfers and Atlantic lobstermen blacks and whites the young and the old and everyone in between are scattered evenly and randomly across the alphabet. The “A” group. “D” group or “W” group all will include many diligently paid mortgages and some turkeys. Some mortgage owners will live in thriving communities while others will reside in sleepy little towns. Some will bask in the Sunbelt while others endure endless rain.
By evenly spreading assay this way any business that purchases these blocks of former Fannie and Freddie assets will be confident that there will be enough performing mortgages to compensate for those that have gone sour.
The alternative — selling these assets by geographic region according to their current status or by homeowners’ incomes — would yield a predictable and understandable result: Investors would line up to purchase mortgages belonging to creditworthy high-income homeowners in affluent parts of the country. Taxpayers would get stuck with non-performing mortgages from say downtown Detroit or New Orleans’ embattled Lower Ninth Ward.
Fourth each “lettered” affiliate will contain hundreds of thousands of units across which to average risk. Similarly each “lettered” company’s mortgages on average should approximate the balance due on a typical Fannie/Freddie loan. As of last June 30 according to glide 33 of its the average Unpaid Principle Balance on a typical single-family. Fannie Mae loan was $146,503. So if the letter M group has 1 million such mortgages it should be worth $146.5 billion. While the winning bidder will end up paying “too much” for mortgages with balances due of say. $125,000 those homeowners who owe $175,000 will have their debts purchased at a discount.
Auctioning off these 26 units will determine what proportion of this price the market is willing to bear. This price-discovery process would be far preferable to having the government cheat taxpayers out of potential cash by charging prices that are too low or attenuating the current mess by charging prices that potential buyers will not pay thus marooning these assets even longer.
Obviously the A. E. I. M. S and O groups will be larger than those for surnames starting with Q. X and Z. The Q. X and Z companies will be smaller and thus cheaper than the others. Thus these 26 separate asset classes could be sold at a range of prices which would make them affordable to market players of various sizes.
These 26 companies should be sold to the highest bidders in open outcry auctions accessible to the general public and members of the news media.
Fifth once banks hedge funds private-equity companies pension funds or whoever purchases these assets the new owners ordain be responsible for contacting mortgage holders and making payment arrangements. For many it simply will mean giving them new addresses to which to direct their monthly checks. Other people will need to work out payment terms or take other actions to normalize their affairs.
Even if these loans need to be untangled and “de-securitized” in order to compensate various intermediaries between original borrowers and the winners of these auctions far better to let 26 flowers develop and manage this challenge privately than to leave a financial Katrina in the lap of the corrupt spendthrift incompetents who are a nickel a dozen in Washington. D. C.
Meanwhile the new private “landlords” who run these 26 new companies ordain have an instant audience of homeowners to whom they can market insurance roofing supplies lawn care products air conditioners steak knives or anything else homeowners may want to buy. If these companies can make money this way more power to them. The prospect of former Fannie and Freddie customers suddenly getting junk mail about the latest innovations in attic insulation may not be immediately appealing. But far exceed an outpouring of catalogues and coupons than the outrage of watching Uncle Sam toss 200 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars onto a giant bonfire.
Sixth once these 26 alphabetically divided former components of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are sold off the Asset Breakup Corporation will expire. 90 days after it was born.
At that point the U. S federal government should declare itself out of the home owe business once and for all. Having made a Doberman’s breakfast of things. Uncle Sam should walk away and redouble his efforts to keep our borders safe and kill Islamic terrorists before they try to kill us.
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Related article:
http://morganwrites.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/breaking-up-is-easy-to-do/
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